Dehradun, December 19
The assembly today witnessed uproarious scenes, as the opposition demanded jobs for Nursery Teachers Training (NTT) diploma holders and raised the CD scam issue, among others, forcing Speaker Harbans Kapoor to adjourn the house several times.

Immediately after the session started at 11 am, Congress and BSP legislatures demanded discussion on issues of NTT diploma holders, transportation services in the capital city, unemployment and the CD scam.

Even as the Speaker asked the members to raise the issues during zero hour, the opposition legislators came into the well of the house and started raising slogans - “Gen Dyer ki yeh sarkar nahi chalegi”, “Bhrashtari Mukhuyamantri isteefa de”, “hatyaron ki yeh sarkar nahi chalegi”, “shiksha virodi yeh sarkar nahi chalegi”.

They accused the government of shying away from the discussion, forcing the adjournment of house till 11.30 am. Later, the speaker extended the adjournment till 11.45, 12 and then 12.20.

When the house reassembled at 12.20 pm, the Speaker informed the members that four notices of adjournment motion under the rule 58 have been accepted.

He also said leader of the opposition Harak Singh Rawat’s request of having discussions regarding the issue of NTT teachers under rule 310 has been accepted.

However, immediately after, members, whose notices for discussion under Rule 58 were not accepted, jumped into the well and asked the Speaker to admit notices.

The din continued even as the Speaker assured the members that they would be allowed to raise the issues under different rules.

At around 12.55 pm, the Speaker adjourned the house again till 1.30 pm and later the extended it till 3 pm.

When the house reassembled, discussion was held regarding the recruitment of NTT diploma holders. However, no conclusion was reached.

Later, when the ruling party refused to order an inquiry into the CD scam, the Opposition created a ruckus. Finally, the Speaker adjourned the house sine die.

Dehradun, December 19
With opposition legislators raking up the infamous CD scam issue, rowdy scenes were witnessed on the fifth day of the winter session of the Assembly, here today.

After lunch, Congress MLA Kishore Upadhaya raised the issue under rule 58 and demanded a high-level probe into the scam.

Upadhaya charged that a compact disc prepared by a private company owned by the brother of Parbhat Kumar Sarangi, the then secretary to Chief Minister Maj. Gen. (retd) B.C. Khanduri, having detailed digitized information about the state was sold for Rs 50,000 per CD to various departments of the state government. A total amount of Rs 1.5 crore was involved in the scam.

“All this has been going on from the office of the CM, who himself launched the CD on July 26, 2008. The office of the CM was being misused,” alleged Harak Singh Rawat, leader of opposition in the state assembly.

In his reply, parliamentary affairs minister Parkash Pant said the CD under question was sold to various departments of the state government, but during the previous Congress regime of N.D. Tiwari.

“The Opposition should understand that the alleged scam was during the Congress government and hence they should refrain from unnecessarily creating a ruckus over the issue,” he said, while rejecting the demand to order any inquiry into the matter.

Reacting to this, Congress and BSP legislators came to the well of the house and indulged in heavy sloganeering against the Khanduri Government.

Later, Rawat said the Congress is determined to raise the alleged corrupt practices of the government and its senior bureaucrats, particularly about the sale of CDs.

“We will raise this issue again in the budget session of the assembly. Besides, we will be making the scam a state issue and will expose the corrupt face of the Khanduri government in all the districts of the Uttarakhand,” he said.

Notably, the issue of the CD scam had earlier also led to allegations and counter allegations between the opposition Congress and ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

The Congress legislators had also submitted a memorandum to the state Governor B.L. Joshi in August 2008, while demanding the resignation of the state government.

At that time, the Khanduri (retd) had, however, said he was prepared to order an inquiry if sufficient proof of any wrongdoing was provided to him.

Dehradun, December 19
Under the banner of State Government Teachers’ Coordination Committee, thousands of teachers of the government schools today staged a massive demonstration outside the Uttarakhand Vidhan Sabha.

The teachers rubbished the government claim that their salaries were revised in accordance with recommendations of the Sixth Pay Commission and demanded pay parity with that of the Central government teachers.

Although some of the government teachers have been protesting outside the assembly from the past four days, today teachers of all primary, secondary and higher secondary schools of Dehradun joined the demonstration.

Raising slogans against the Uttarakhand government, the teachers owing allegiance to four state government teachers’ associations, rued that the state government did not consider them for pay parity given to other state government employees on the pattern of Central government.

“According to a written communiqué from the union government, dated August
29, 2008, to the state government, the teachers were placed in a separate
category entitled for separate pay band and grade pay,” said Samiti president
Girdhar Singh Bisht.

He demanded that without delay, the government should order payment of salaries to all the 60,000 teachers of the government and government-aided schools of the state at par with their Central government counterparts.

The teachers threatened to intensify the agitation in case the government fails to concede their demand.

Addressing the protesting teachers, leader of the opposition Harak Singh Rawat flayed the government for “overlooking” the demands of the teachers.

Terming the state government as insensitive towards the teachers, he said: “The Congress party fully stands by the cause of the protesting teachers.”

Meanwhile, the protest of unemployed Nursery Teachers Training (NTT) teachers entered its 396th day today. Led by their president Yogita Joshi, the members of the NTT Two Years Trained Unemployed Organisation today burnt the effigy of Uttarakhand Chief Minister Maj. Gen. (Retd) B.C. Khanduri and education minister Madan Kaushik.

Dehradun, December 19
Despite representations, the employees of Uttarakhand Environment Protection and Pollution Control Board (UEPPCB) are clueless about the fate of the amount deducted as Contributing Provident Fund (CPF) from their salaries during their tenure with the State Pollution Control Board, UP.

These employees had opted to work in UEPPCB after Uttarakhand came into being in 2000. Despite formation of UEPPCB in 2002, they claimed that deductions were made from their salaries under CPF till 2003 and the amount was deposited with their former employer, the State Pollution Control Board of UP. After that, these deductions were converted into EPF by the UEPPCB.

The aggrieved employees claimed that they came to know about this from their monthly salary slips in 2005.

“As such we are in dark about what became of the amount deposited in CPF,” they alleged while demanding the deductions being made under EPF should be deposited in their CPF accounts.

“Moreover, since no individual accounts of employees under EPF have been opened, we are confused where this amount is being deposited,” they added.

The employees also claimed that in spite of starting EPF deductions, they have not been given any statement acknowledging its receipt so far.

Most of these employees have completed 20 years of service. “In the confusing situation, we cannot avail any advance to meet emergency monetary requirements,” they claimed.

Notably, the aggrieved employees have given several signed representations to the UEPPCB authorities since last year seeking clarifications on the issue. The latest was submitted on December 15, 2008.

On the other hand, member secretary, UEPPCB, Anoop Wadhawan expressed ignorance about the issue. “But I will get it checked and convey it to the employees,” he said.

Dehradun, December 19
The Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) is contemplating starting a weather channel somewhere in middle of next year to provide accurate and comprehensive weather information to people.

“With ever-increasing demand of accurate and timely weather forecast, a need for weather channel was being felt for quite some time and thus we are contemplating starting a channel somewhere in the middle of next year,” said Air Vice-Marshal Dr. Ajit Tyagi, director-general of IMD in his keynote address at a workshop organised by IMD, Dehradun, and Uttarakhand Council For Science and Technology (UCOST) in Dehradun today.

The DG admitted that weather prediction often gets distorted through media interpretations, but a weather channel could effectively put the forecast in more accurate manner. He said the department has already started exploring possibility of tie-ups with a private channel in this regard.

He said there was a growing demand of value-added forecast for each sector and agro-advisory services for farmers was in the offing.

The DG said the department would now be installing observatories in every district of Uttarakhand by 2009 end and would further take it to the tehsil level. He added that Doppler Weather Radars would be installed at Nainital and Mussoorie.

Referring to the importance of state forecast centres, the DG said credible forecast for a region can come from areas in close vicinity to the area of action.

He said the forecasts have been metro-centric and the Himalayan region was still to get due attention.

Earlier, Uttarakhand Chief Minister Maj. Gen. B.C. Khanduri (retd) said weather forecast certainly had an important role as his government was keenly working on the development of helipads in the state.

While assuring all infrastructure assistance to IMD in Uttarakhand, the CM said the role of weather forecast in horticulture and tourism was of paramount importance.

He in particular lauded Dr. Anand Sharma, director of IMD, Dehradun, for his high accuracy level in weather predictions. Dr Anand Sharma, while welcoming the delegates said initiatives were taken for timely and accurate weather forecasting.

Surveyor General, Maj. Gen. R.S. Tanwar and UCOST director Dr. Rajendra Dobhal were other prominent speakers on the occasion. Prof B. Purohit, Maj. Gen. B. Nagrajan and other dignitaries were present on the occasion.

She replaces Sindhushree Khullar, who has become the secretary in department of youth affairs. ONGC Board now has 17 members.

Dehradun, December 19
It was days of rejoicing, togetherness and camaraderie at Doon International School as it celebrated its 16th annual day with great fervour, here today.

The celebration commenced with a grand opening by the chief guest Maj. Gen. Rajesh Kochar, Additional Director General, Administration and Coordination, Army Headquaters, and a member of the Board of Governors of the school.

The programme began with the ceremonial lighting of lamps, which was followed by a prayer to Goddess Saraswati.

Later, meritorious students for the year 2007-2008 were awarded prizes. An outstanding student of class XI was awarded a cash prize worth Rs. 10,000.

The other highlights of the day were a melodious and a colorful presentation titled “unity in diversity” by the pre-primary section, which showcased various Indian states.

This was followed by a dance recital titled “seasons” by the students of class I, II and III, who depicted different shades of life in accordance with various seasons of the year.

An English play “Tidy That Room”, which was presented by the middle school, highlighted the importance of keeping the environment clean.

This was followed by a Hindi comical play “moteram ka satyagraha” — a comical satire about a Brahmin from Benaras.

A similar stadium would also come up in Dehradun. He said games were being organised at village level to bring forth talented players.